Posterwire.com is a movie poster weblog. From images of the latest Hollywood one-sheets to vintage movie posters, this film poster weblog hopes to offer a bit of insight into film key art.
Director Frank Darabont’s horror movie The Mist (based on the Stephen King novella) was recently released on DVD. In the film, actor Thomas Jane plays a movie poster illustrator, which has to be a first as far as film character occupations go. The movie poster illustrator as a hero character is interesting when one considers director Darabont’s strong feelings about modern movie posters. In this Comic Con interview with Chris Hewitt of Empire Magazine, Frank Darabont does not mince words about his assessment of the state of film poster art. The Frank Darabont interview begins at 2:10 in the Comic-Con Video Diary #3 (Part 2) (Warning: NSFW language):
“Blow me with that poster art” musings aside, Darabont has long been a strong advocate for movie poster illustration, which is apparent in his film projects, like The Majestic movie poster or the DVD cover art for the anniversary releases of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. The Mist Two-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD even includes a featurette called Drew Struzan: An Appreciation of An Artist about the famed illustrator, who illustrated The Mist teaser poster.
Famed movie poster illustrator Drew Struzan returns to the warm embrace of his long-time client Lucasfilm with the release of the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull teaser poster. Struzan last illustrated the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith movie poster for Lucas, and this marks his return to illustrating many of the one-sheets in the Indiana Jones series. (Although the first and perhaps best Indiana Jones movie poster illustration credit goes to artist Richard Amsel.)
The poster feels like a visual sequel to the previous Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom teaser poster, with a similar theme of Dr. Jones casting an impressive figure in a backlit entrance promising more things to come. There seems to be some debate about whether this piece of key art depiction of Indiana Jones accurately reflects actor Harrison Ford’s age, but looking at Crystal Skull promo photos it is hard to say how much “wear and tear” the archeologist will be showing on the big screen.
One thing we did notice is that the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie poster is using a different Indiana Jones logo than the previously released official Crystal Skull logo. Rather than an exact recreation of the original “Indiana Jones” logotype, this new teaser poster version of the logo differs significantly — using different letterforms, sizing, and kerning overlaps. Does this revised logo represent more unnecessary George Lucas title tinkering? Have they not settled on the logo for the Indiana Jones brand?
Here’s something you don’t see every day: A new Drew Struzan illustrated movie poster that isn’t for a George Lucas film. Ain’t It Cool News reports Struzan has created the poster for the new Spanish film comedy Torrente 3: El Protector. The film is the third in a series of comedies about a “horrendous Spanish detective”.
You might look at the Drew Struzan Torrent 3 movie poster illustration one of two ways: getting work doing traditional illustration for modern-day Hollywood one-sheets is extremely limited or illustrator Drew Struzan has a history of embracing varied film projects that you might not be aware of. (He is, after all, a true “work for hire” illustrator who has done more than illustrate Star Wars one-sheets.)
We’re not sure how well Struzan’s tradmark “kissed by the sun” warm color schemes or color penciled air-brush techniques work as an illustration for a Spanish comedy (a fan boy over at Ain’t It Cool News nicknamed the poster Jake and the Fatman: The Movie), but it certainly makes for an interesting illustration — right down to the hair on star Santiago Segura’s chest.
From the most popular (the “Circus”) to the most beautiful (the “Gone with the Wind”), we now come to the most bootlegged Star Wars movie poster: the 1982 teaser poster for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Episode VI).
When first announced, the third (of the original trilogy) Star Wars film was titled Revenge of the Jedi. The Revenge of the Jedi teaser poster (designed by Bill Pate and Drew Struzan) is easily the most counterfeited Star Wars one-sheet (and probably the most bootlegged movie poster of all time). Two versions of the Revenge teaser were released (one with and one without the May 25, 1983 release date), with a majority sold at the time through the official Star Wars Fanclub. If you see a Revenge of the Jedi teaser poster with claims it’s a vintage original, chances are it is a fake. There are countless Revenge bootlegs (4 distinct types at last count), along with methods of spotting the forgeries. (Example: A blurry 20th Century Fox logo is one dead giveaway.)
There are several reasons given for the title change from Revenge of the Jedi to Return of the Jedi. The most recent explanation comes from George Lucas himself: “The title was always intended to be Return of the Jedi, but we made the film under the code name Revenge of the Jedi. Unfortunately, what happened is Fox started promoting the film before we could tell them not to use the title.” Lucas is also quoted as saying a “jedi doesn’t seek revenge” and that the different title was an attempt to flush out bootlegs before the films release.
The other (and probably more accurate) reason given for the title change is that 20th Century Fox was concerned about confusion with the release of another science fiction film around the same time: Star Trek II: The Vengeance of Khan. The Revenge title was quickly changed to Return, even though Paramount decided to later change the Star Trek II film title to Wrath of Khan. Return, Revenge, Vengeance, or Wrath — this is what film executives spend their time thinking about.
Title changes aside, the Revenge of the Jedi teaser poster is in stark contrast to most of poster art generated for the Star Wars saga. It is a true teaser in both design and elements used (the artwork is clearly based on images from the previous film The Empire Strikes Back). The poster’s bold neon red color and stipple/posterized style illustration made it a worthy addition to the ever expanding catalog of Star Wars related key art.
With this week’s release of the final Star Wars film, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, we wanted to take some time this week to review Star Wars movie posters from the entire saga. Star Wars one-sheets still remain a top choice for movie poster collectors, even if the current trilogy has taken some sheen off the franchise.
For the 1978 re-release of Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV) in theatres, Lucasfilm hired airbrush artist Charles White III to create a new one-sheet artwork. White was uncomfortable with painting portraits, so he asked fellow artist Drew Struzan to collaborate on the poster by handling all the portrait work. According to Drew Struzan: “Somehow, he asked me to paint the portraits while he would paint the droids and the like… Only an extraordinary individual does anything so generous and unselfish.” This fateful gesture would lead to Drew Struzan’s first piece of artwork for Lucasfilm, and certainly wouldn’t be his last.
The Star Wars Style D poster is more commonly known as the “Circus” poster, named for it’s distinctive circus-style “posted bill” look, which includes torn edges and glimpses of a plywood wall background. This appealing layout was a “happy accident”, explains Struzan. “They found out there wasn’t enough room for the typography and the billing block they had left in the design. What can we do to make more space on a poster that’s already been printed? Let’s pretend it’s posted, then they can put the type below the actual poster. We painted Obi Wan down the side and stuff across the bottom to make it wider and deeper.” (If you look closely at the poster itself, you can see where the original artwork was later surrounded by the “poster wall” effect. Note that the color pencil rendering of Ben Kenobi on the left side differs from the style of the rest of the poster’s painted artwork.)
The original collage artwork was recently sold at auction. It’s interesting to note some of the subtle differences between the original illustration (besides color correction) and the final Star Wars one-sheet artwork. One other often repeated piece of trivia about the artwork is that this is one of George Lucas’s favorite posters — it’s easy to see why.
MovieMaker Magazine has a 2004 interview with three illustrators lamenting the state of movie poster design in relation to art. Artists Drew Struzan, John Berkey, and John Solie offer their take on the “declining state of movie poster art”:
“I think the ’80s were the era when poster art was strongest,” says Drew Struzan. “It started to taper off in the ’90s when computers came into it; it took a lot of work away. People got excited about this new medium of computers for the last 10 years to the point where there were hardly any illustrations at all. As they learned how to use computers, the quality of the work kind of declined.”
Lucasfilm released the final domestic one-sheet for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The poster, by famed poster artist Drew Struzan, represents one of the rare examples of a modern one-sheet poster rendered via traditional illustration. Although Struzan provided the illustration(s) used in the poster, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t revised by Lucasfilm and Fox.
